Inspiring change means more than platitudes

Two days out from International Women’s Day and three
years into the job Women’s Affairs Minister Jo Goodhew has
failed to make inroads into many of the most important
issues facing Kiwi women, Labour’s Women’s Affairs
spokesperson Carol Beaumont says.

Ms Goodhew might claim
she is a minister ‘interested in addressing the factors
that still hamper women’s success’, yet her own ministry
has failed to make any measurable impact in six of the seven
markers of success she has laid out for it.

“This
government is completely lacking any urgency in dealing with
issues that affect thousands of New Zealand women, including
low wages, domestic violence, recognition of the needs of
families, sexual abuse, and paid parental leave for working
mums.

“We used to be world leading on outcomes for
women. Now, according to the Minister, being
‘aspirational’ is good enough.

“On matters, such as
recognising the value of work done primarily by women on
very low wages - caring for our elderly, for instance – Ms
Goodhew has not even bothered to advocate on their behalf to
her colleagues.

“Labour has made it clear that we will
act on these issues. We are committed to real equality, real
opportunity, and real choice for all
women.

The quashing of the convictions of Teina Pora for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett in 1992 has shone a spotlight once again on a major gap in the New Zealand justice system.

To all intents and purposes, access by New Zealanders to the Privy Council has now been closed. Yet the number of times in recent years when the Privy Council has quashed the findings of New Zealand courts has demonstrated that we are regularly(a) jailing the wrong person or(b) arriving at guilty verdicts on grounds sufficiently flawed as to raise serious doubts that a miscarriage of justice has occurred. More>>

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